Will Putin Invade Ukraine?

[Hydra009]

Today and yesterday and the day before, absolutely nothing happened on the southern bank of the Dnieper river in Kherson region.

[Hydra009]

Russian armor smashed near Avdiivka

[Hydra009]

In some of the Avdiivka footage, a Russian armored transport backs up due to enemy fire - right into its own dismounted infantry.  It's hard to take an exact tally due to the smoke, but at least 3-4 guys got partially or completely run over.

That driver better have died in that failed assault or he's likely find a grenade in his pillow.

[Hydra009]

The ratio of vehicle losses over the past three days is around 5.5:1 (Russian:Ukrainian) and that's only the independently verified wrecks.  Adviika appears to be skewing the average with ludicrous equipment losses on the Russian side with comparatively light losses on the Ukrainian side.

[Hydra009]

Blasts in Crimea

Bridge closed (due to beach party)

[Hydra009]

Russian telegram falsely claims to have captured Ukrainian spy chief Budanov.  It's pretty funny - they just have some rando taking a picture in front of a wall and photoshopped Budanov's face there.  It's like the Sims 3 debacle all over again LOL.

This and the fake coma story leads me to think they must really hate this guy.  Stuff like this must put a smile on his face - if such a thing were possible.

[Hydra009]

Nowhere to hide

[Hydra009]

"One strike is all we need" Ukraine conducts high-value assassinations

Intelligence obtained by the SBU allowed successful strikes on high-value military targets, killing several other Russian commanders and only narrowly missing Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, the news outlet said.

Ukraine reportedly attempted to strike at Gerasimov when he was visiting Russian troops in April. While senior high-ranking officers were said to have been killed in the attack, Gerasimov escaped with his life.

The CIA reportedly asked the Ukrainians to pull their punches.  When the CIA thinks you're too bloodthirsty...

[Cassia]

Checkout Russian demographics....so screwed, look at the population chart. Yeah No wonder they wanted Ukraine. What a backfire.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/russian-federation/2020/

[Hydra009]

Checkout Russian demographics....so screwed, look at the population chart. Yeah No wonder they wanted Ukraine. What a backfire.
https://www.populationpyramid.net/russian-federation/2020/

Yep.  Population of Russia set to decrease by 7 million from 2021 to 2046.  And that includes the nearly 2.5 million in occupied Crimea and doesn't include Ukraine war losses.  So really, it's more like a 10 million loss.

Lots of other countries are having somewhat similar plateaus or even modest declines, of course.  But Russia's a bit different in that it's a bit steeper than normal.  In addition, the overall state of health isn't great.  Life expectancy was nearly the world average in 2019, which is not great, not terrible but that was before the Ukraine war, when Russians began to experience a large number of smoking-related accidents and bizarre mishaps, both within Russia and abroad.

[Hydra009]

British defence ministry: Russian casualties top 480,000

150,000-190,000 have been killed or permanently wounded

240,000-290,000 temporarily wounded and could theoretically return to combat in some capacity

Doesn't include Wagner or prisoner battalions.  Wagner has 22,000 kia and 40,000 wounded as of May 2023

[Hydra009]

Reading Ukrainian news is quite strange in that I can read from people reporting from a country which is quite literally a warzone speak about my own country - which is not at war, much less fighting it on its own soil - with deep concern.

The US has a new Speaker of the House, a Trump loyalist who has repeatedly come out against Ukrainian aid.  (The other guy, a pro-Ukrainian Republican, couldn't become Speaker because Komrade Trump didn't allow it)

Obviously, Ukraine fears such government shakeups could endanger Ukrainian aid and they're absolutely correct to feel this way.  The new guy (I try not to learn their names lest I get attached) says he's "open to negotiations" with Biden about it, which I suspect either means basically nothing or "how much ya got" in Trumpian terms.

Either way, it's inherently disgraceful to get our leaders chosen by some orange stain and likely very little if any good will come from it.

[Dark Lightning]

The chump can't die soon enough. It's an absolute disgrace of reason that he can say the shit he does, and the effect that it has on the US population...and the world. The response to his madness is disconcerting, to me.

[Unbeliever]

He's more than disconcerting to me, he's infuriating, but since I have low blood pressure he may actually be helping me stay alive by raising it. 🤔

[Hydra009]

The Ukrainians have gotten very, very good with drones.  The world's foremost expert in deconstructing Russian equipment.

There has been a slew of videos lately of them hitting everything from armored vehicles to artillery to one of those fancy zoopark radars to logistics trucks.

My personal favorites are those "flamethrower" artillery, the TOS-1 Buratino, which is really a MLRS that shoots rockets with thermobaric warheads.  Sounds nasty.  I hope they're not volatile...

It's like watching the Death Star go boom.  Blazing sun?  Well it is now.

There's also footage of a Russian armored vehicle ramming another one (road rage is a terrible thing) and then they both explode shortly thereafter, presumably from artillery or mine.

There's also one of a Russian IFV blown straight up, sending the crew so high that it wouldn't be a bad idea to give them parachutes next time.  And unlike Pink Floyd, one guy definitely did not wish he was here.

There are just so many crazy catastrophic events pouring in daily that I can barely even keep them straight.  It honestly looks like they really have no idea what they're doing and they're just sending in fresh troops to walk over the unalived ones and hoping that works.  It's like using a pull door by just charging into it as hard as you can with your face.  I mean, I guess that might theoretically work after some time, but is the gain commensurate with the cost?